


Krystallos II

by imma_redshirt



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, M/M, McSpirk Holiday Fest, Short One Shot, Snowball Fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 22:26:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5644069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imma_redshirt/pseuds/imma_redshirt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A last minute mission strands Kirk, Spock, and McCoy on a snowy planet. Kirk refuses to let this kill his holiday cheer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Krystallos II

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this prompt for the McSpirk Holiday Fest: The trio is on a mission on a planet that has snow. They start a snowball fight and afterwards warm themselves up by a fire. Leonard starts singing Christmas songs, Jim tells a little Christmas story and Spock doesn't say how illogical that is.
> 
> This took me absolutely forever--it's weeks after the deadline--and I feel terrible about it. I didn't get to work Kirk's Christmas story in there, but Bones gets to sing. :) 
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The mission had been sprung on them the weekend before Christmas holiday. Since they were the closest ship to the snowy planet Krystallos II, Starfleet had ordered a brief trip to the planet’s western hemisphere, where odd energy readings had been reported. At the time, most of the crew had already been in full on Holiday Cheer Mode, and Jim was loathe to remove any of them from their department’s celebrations just to send them down to a cold, uninhabited planet.

For that reason, Jim decided to complete the mission himself.

It wasn’t exactly how he had planned to spend the day, but if it was as brief and simple as Starfleet insisted, he’d be back on the _Enterprise_ in time to share some authentic hot cocoa and sugar cookies with his two favorite people. _That_ was how he had planned to spend his off time, and even if they were all too tired after the mission to do anything else, they’d at least be able to share the night together and sleep in the next day.

As he stepped into the transporter room, he found the rest of the away team waiting for him. Spock and Bones stood near the transporter pad, donned in the same cold weather gear that Jim wore, tricorders at their hips. Bones was fussing over Spock’s hood, scowling around a candy cane that he held between his teeth. On the doctor’s own head was a fluffy red Santa hat that sat crooked on his brown hair.

“Doctor,” Spock was saying, the first signs of Vulcany frustration showing in his voice. “I assure you, my hood is functional.”

“I know it’s functional,” Bones said, “I just wanna make sure it covers these Vulcan ears of yours. Last thing we need is you catching a cold just before the holidays.”

Bones gave the hood a final tug over Spock’s ears and leaned back, nodding to himself. “There. Don’t you let that thing fall back while we’re down there.”

“And yourself, Bones?” Jim asked, stepping up onto the transporter pad, next to an emergency kit that had been set there. “I don’t think that hat is Starfleet regulation.”

“Wha?” Bones reached up, patted his hat, and chuckled. “Whoops. Forgot I had that on! Here,” he picked it off and tossed it to Ensign Vega at the controls, who fitted it onto his own head with a grin. Bones pulled his hood up and went to stand with Jim and Spock, then paused just before stepping up onto the pad.

“Before I forget,” he said, and reached into his pocket to pull out three candy canes. He tossed a couple to Jim and Vega, and handed the last one to Spock, who surprisingly took it without comment.

“Courtesy of the med team’s party,” he said jauntily, twirling his own candy around a finger. “Which, by the way, I was asked to leave early.”

“Sorry, Bones,” Jim said, “But I hope I got to you before you got to your special brew egg nog.”

“Just barely,” Bones muttered.

Jim chuckled. “I promise you can make a fresh batch when we get back. I’ll help.”

“Are we ready, Captain?” Spock asked before Bones could answer back.

Ignoring the slight glare Bones gave their Vulcan, Jim pulled up his hood and adjusted his gloves. “I think so. Are you ready at the controls, Mr. Vega?”

Vega pulled the candy cane from his mouth. “Aye, sir!”

“Alright then, gentlemen. Let’s make this quick.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------

Only 45 minutes into their mission, Jim found himself wishing he had told Starfleet to stuff it.

The energy source they had been sent to investigate turned out to be strange little plants that grew in a small clearing in the center of a forest. A few hundred of them had been tangled together, their dark green vines growing a few inches above the layer of snow that covered the immediate surroundings. At the tip of each vine grew a closed flower bulb. Spock had made quick work of them, determining that it was the bulbs that gave off a “fascinating” amount of energy.

While Spock and McCoy scanned the plants, Jim had studied their surroundings. The clearing they had energized in sat in the middle of a vast forest. Pine-like trees grew wide and tall with about three meters of free space between them, their emerald green needles covered in freshly fallen snow. Some of the plants that grew in the clearing also grew at the base of a number of trees, their vines climbing up dark trunks and along thin branches. Far ahead, presumably at the end of the forest, was a range of snow capped mountains that stretched for kilometers around. 

Later, Jim would swear he had looked away from the mountains for only a second, and when he looked back, darkness had begun to settle over the snowy peaks.

That was a sign that it was time to beam up.

By then, Spock and Bones were too busy bickering to notice.

“Leonard, it would be more beneficial to our mission if you’d continue scanning the plants and not myself.”

“Already scanned ‘em. Now stay still, I’m trying to take your vital signs.”

“That much is clear. You also took my vital signs 15.4 minutes ago, as well as 15 minutes before that. A third reading is hardly necess--”

“I’m the doctor here and I say it’s necessary to take a Vulcan’s vital signs every 15 minutes when he’s on a frozen planet! Now, stay still and let me take your temperature!”

“Gentlemen,” Jim said, and had to hide a smile when they looked up with varying expressions of frustration. “I believe it’s time for us to beam up.”

Spock followed Jim’s gaze to the mountain range. “Agreed.”

Jim flipped open his communicator, turning slightly away so Spock wouldn’t see his amusement and realize that Bones was discretely scanning him from behind. But when he tried to contact the _Enterprise,_ only static answered. He frowned and tried again.

“ _Enterprise,_ this is Captain Kirk. The away team is ready for beam up.” A pause. “ _Enterprise,_ requesting immediate beam up.”

Suddenly, Scotty’s voice broke through the static. “ _Captain! Thank heavens we’ve finally reached you! There’s a storm brewin’ over the mountains, and the interference is--”_

Static made his next words incomprehensible. Jim shared a worried look with Bones.

“Scotty, you’re breaking up.” More static. “Scotty!”

Still, only static answered, save for a few discernable words. “malfunctions” and “transporter” and “hours at most” were the only words the away team could understand, and they were the _only_ words Jim needed to hear to know that the storm was preventing them from being beamed up, and they would be stuck planet-side for a few hours at most. Not unusual, not entirely unexpected, and not at all pleasant news.

“Well,” Jim said, flipping the communicator shut. “Looks like it’ll be a while before you can get to that egg nog, Doctor.”

Bones snorted and tucked his coat closer around himself. “Would rather just have a bottle of Jack at this point.”

Spock was watching the storm brew over the mountain tops, head tilted in that manner of his that meant whatever he was watching was fascinating. “The storm may dissipate over the mountains before it can reach us. We are safe, for the moment.”

“At least there’s that,” Bones said. He narrowed his eyes at Spock and reached up for his hood. “Here, let me--”

“Doctor McCoy, please--”

“Told you to keep these ears covered--”

Jim stuck his hands into his pockets and watched his partners, huffing. So they wouldn’t be able to get to that hot cocoa and those cookies as soon as he’d have liked. And they would have been from the galley, too, which made this all the worse. Now, instead of putting their gear away and retreating into Kirk’s room for sweets and a warm blanket to share, they had to find shelter on a snow covered planet where a freak snow storm sat threateningly in the distance, sans hot beverage and freshly baked sweets.

Frowning, and more annoyed than ever, Jim prepared to interrupt the scene before him so they could make a makeshift shelter when, after seeing a patch of snow fall from a nearby tree, he got a better idea. He reached down, scooped up a handful of snow, and began packing it together.

Just because they were stuck on a planet, didn’t mean they couldn’t have some holiday fun.

“Leonard, your coat is not zipped to your neck. Your chest should not be exposed to the cold.”

“Stop tryin to distract me! _I’m_ not the one we should be worryin’ about, you stubborn Vulcan.”

“Remind me, doctor, who succumbed first to the cold on Sarpeidon?”

“That was because your ancestors’ feral hardiness was coming through! Now, you listen to me--”

_WUMP_

The snowball smacked hard against Bones’s coat, right on his lower back, and sent the shocked doctor stumbling forward into Spock’s arms with a yelp. 

“Jim!” Bones bellowed, and whipped around just as a second snowball flew by his shoulder. Already scooping up another handful, Jim grinned up at his partner and shrugged. 

“Might as well make as much use of this winter wonderland while we’re down here, wouldn’t you say, doctor?”

In place of an answer, Bones buried his gloved hands into the snow and began packing a snowball the size of a melon. 

“Captain,” Spock said, arching an eyebrow as the humans took aim at each other. “Would it not be wiser to build a shelter against the storm?”

“I thought you said we were safe,” Jim said, snowball in hand, arm raised high and gaze trained on Bones’s blue eyed glare.

“For the moment. Without more data, I cannot predict the nature of the storm.”

“I think we’re fine for the _MOMENT!_ ” At the last word, Jim tossed the snowball and dodged to the side as a large, misshapen snowball came flying towards his chest. Panting, he dove behind a tree and quickly worked on more ammo. Behind his shelter, he head Bones yell “SPOCK COVER ME” and the sound of a Southern gentleman who was very unfamiliar with snow scrambling to build another snowball. He may have also heard the long suffering sigh of a Vulcan scientist, but he couldn’t be sure because a small snowball crashed against the tree trunk and sprayed his hood.

“You’ll pay for that, doctor!” He yelled, and quickly pivoted around the trunk, tossed the snowball in Bones’s general direction, and dove back behind his shelter. Judging by the WUMP and a string of inventive curses, Vulcans didn’t serve as very good shelter.

They may not be sharing authentic hot chocolate and relaxing in the warmth of his room, but sharing a snowball fight in middle of a snow covered wonderland was nearly just as good.

By the time Bones’s fourth snowball smacked into Jim’s tree barrier, Jim already had a small pile of ammo, with two perfect snowballs in his hands. Grinning, he whipped around the tree and raised his hands--

Only to find an empty clearing.

Slowly, he lowered his arms. He narrowed his eyes and circled around the clearing, following the footsteps that had disappeared behind a wide tree. With a smirk, he flattened his back against the tree and got ready to attack a hidden doctor with two snowballs when--

_crunch_

With a curse, he whiled towards to the left where the footstep had sounded--

\--and was met with a two snowballs to his gut. He doubled over and lost one snowball as a result. Instead of straightening, he rolled onto the ground and chucked the snowball from bellow, laughing when a startled Bones fell back with a new patch of snow on his shoulder.

Jim leapt to his feet and headed straight for his doctor. Cursing, Bones rolled onto his side and tried to build another snowball, but his movements were too frantic and the snow collapsed in his hands. Before he could try again, Jim threw himself forward and landed on him.

“Oof!” Bones pulled his face out of the snow where it had been smooshed in by Jim’s thrown weight and glared. “The hell do you think you’re doin’, goin’ around and throwin’ yourself on fallen doctors--can’t _move_ \--”

“That’s the idea, Bones,” Jim laughed, gathering the doctor up into a warm, tight embrace. “It’s four to two--”

“Four to _three_ , I got you with some of that one that hit the tree trunk!”

“Either way, I win,” Jim said, and lowered his face until he was inches from Bones’s glare. “And to the victor goes the spoils.”

Bones wiggled, face flushed, and tried to get an arm free. “And what is that?”

“Well--” Jim began.

WUMP

“Argh!” Jim fell to the side, the the remnants of a large snowball smack-dab in the center of his back. He sat up then dove to the right just as another snowball clipped him on the hip. There was a flash of a Starfleet issued coat through the trees, then another snowball heading straight for his chest.

The attacker’s aim was true, and Jim fell back with a delighted laugh. Bones scrambled to his feet and ran for cover, already forming a snowball as he ran. In moments, Jim was on his trail, and he could hear the soft sounds of a stealthy Vulcan on his own.

In the end, only Spock could keep an accurate score, with Jim at twenty hits, Bones at eleven, and Spock himself at thirty-seven. 

Jim had been able to tackle them both--Bones three more times, and Spock twice--and by the end of their battle, he was panting, hot breath visible in the cold, fading light.

“If you get sick after this,” Bones said, blue eyes watching him from beneath his hood, “Don’t you come crying to me.”

Jim laughed and nodded, still breathless. He wouldn’t have to, anyway, because Bones was sure to check on him the moment they got back.

“The storm has not passed the mountains,” Spock said. As if his speaking had summoned a genie, Bones was suddenly by his side, patting snow off his coat and adjusting his hood. This time, Spock did not complain. He was not breathless like his humans, but his cheeks, his nose, and the tips of his ears were flushed a light green.

“Good,” Jim said. He went to sit by their equipment in the center of the clearing where they had dropped it. Nearby, the cluster of odd plants seemed darker as daylight gave way to night. “I’ll try the Enterprise again, but I think they’d have contacted us if there had been any changes.”

While he tried to contact his ship, he watched his partners in the fading light. Spock got started on building a fire, while Bones pulled a thermal blanket from the emergency kit. They should have brought extra, even if the mission had meant to be brief, but their high holiday spirits had blinded them to any ill happenings. Sighing when he recieved nothing but static, Jim stored away his communicator and sat by Spock’s side.

“Here,” Bones said, and draped one end of the blanket over Jim’s shoulders. Rubbing his arms, the doctor sat next to him, and turned slightly so Jim could share the blanket and slip an arm around his back.

“Sorry for taking you from your party, Bones” Jim said, moving in closer to the doctor’s warmth. “I didn’t mean for this mission to go on this long.”

“Not your fault,” Bones said. “We’ll just have to wait for the ship-wide party.”

Spock moved back, and their faces were bathed in light and warmth from a crackling fire. 

“You,” Bones said before Spock could settle in, “In the middle.”

The look on Spock’s face meant he knew he would be fighting a losing battle if he argued, but as the humans settled in to either side of him, draping the blanket over his shoulders, his expression changed to that of a Vulcan who liked where he was just fine.

Bones slipped an arm through Spock’s and moved in closer, and Jim shifted until he was flush against the Vulcan’s side. They sat in silence, watching the fire, taking warmth from the flames and each other’s company. The world was quiet around them, save for the low rumble that spoke of violent thunder in the mountains, and the forest was still save for the shivering humanoids in the clearing.

Jim wondered if Spock and Bones were imagining the holiday decor upon the Enterprise like he was. He was still mourning the absence of hot, chocolatey goodness when he heard the first notes of Bones singing.

“ _Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock,_ ” Bones began, tapping his hand against Spock’s forearm. “ _Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring--_ ”

Jim joined in, and before they knew it, their quiet singing was loud enough to overpower the distant rumble of thunder.

“ _What a bright time, it’s the right time, to rock the night away!_ ”

“ _Jingle bell time, it’s a swell time!_ ”

Spock stiffened as they sang as one on either side of him.

“ _To go riding in a one horse sleigh!_ ”

Jim laughed, leaving the rest of the song to Bones, and nudged Spock with his elbow. Spock shared a tiny smile and laid two fingers atop of Jim’s.

“ _Giddy up, jingle horse, pick up your…_ Y’all seeing this?”

Jim and Spock looked up, following Bones’s gaze. Ahead of them, where the fire’s light could not reach, a spot of red light winked into existence.

“What is it?” Bones whispered, moving impossibly closer to Spock. Spock’s hand tightened around Jim’s, and he placed a protective hand on Bones’s shoulder. 

A green light joined the red, and a yellow, followed by a bright orange, each light winking into existence one right after the other in a line. One line branched off from the original, and another, and before their eyes, dozens of little lights appeared along the ground and up the trees, each small glow bright against the darkness.. By the time the alien trees had lit up with the lights, the three Starfleet officers knew what was shining before them.

“Those plants,” Jim said. “The flowers must have been what was giving off those energy readings.” He grinned in wonder. “They’re beautiful.”

“Whaddya know,” Bones said, and relaxed into Spock’s side. “A hundred Christmas trees, just for us.”

“The unopened flowers must be nocturnal,” Spock said. He moved as if to stand. “Do they survive the night, or do new flowers grow in their place? Do--”

“Will you just sit back and relax,” Bones muttered, and pulled him back down. 

Tucked into the warmth of his two humans, Spock opted to do just that, and the trio sat in silence while the blooming flowers lit up every tree and the center of the clearing. 

Sitting on an alien planet in the snow was definitely not as enjoyable as sharing his friends company aboard a warm, safe ship, but as Bones began to sing again and Spock rubbed a thumb along Jim’s wrist, the warmth of the fire growing and the tiny lights softly glowing in the trees, Jim decided this wasn’t so bad, either.

(They did eventually beam up half an hour later, and Jim decided he was definitely still annoyed with Starfleet, even as he sidled up next to Bones on his couch, warm mug in hand, while Spock steeped spiced tea and wrote up notes on the Iridescent Flowers of Krystallos II.)


End file.
